Rainbow Cupcakes and Pigskins...

I have decided. I have the best friends in the whole world. My new group of friends from Louisville are so amazing. For my birthday my friend Sara made me cupcakes in a rainbow, Steve bought me dinner, Melissa bought me a book card growing diamond ring and bubble bath, and josh got me a football. Along with all this my friends rallied together some other friends and we all went downtown in the 65 degree weather (its never been that nice on my birthday, usually it snows and I can remember lots of snow days where I didnt have to go to school on my birthday) and we played football at the Riverfront park in downtown Louisville. How fun! Despite the argument over who won (the lights shut off in the middle of a crucial play) it was sooo much fun. This fun birthday brings back some fond memories of other amazing birthdays....

The Rollerskate party of 2003. My friends rallied together and surprised me with a skate party after I was taken out to my favorite restaraunt. What a great birthday!

The 16th birthday. My 16th was so awesome, my mom and dad and sister helped me to throw a birthday party of a lifetime fitted with a wrestling ring in the great room and 3/4 of my high school spread across my house. I'll never forget that one either.

The fact that every birthday my little (not so little anymore i guess, they are now in High School) cousins call every year and sing to me. They are starting to get embarrassed and their mom has to make them, but I love those little happy birthdayers!

No offense guys....but the best part of this birthday was my mom and I's conversation about when i was a baby. She was so sad that i am growing up and am now 23 and she wanted to reminisce about how beautiful of a baby I was. She says I was just perfect....made me almost cry. If the conversation would have stopped there it would have been perfect unfortunately she continued with "I need babies Amanda, you have to get married and have me some grand babies..." My mom is baby crazy, but regardless her telling me stories of when I was a kid will be cherished forever.

Reflections of a 22 year old...

Its official, I'm not a college student, I'm not living at home, I'm not dating, I'm not an intern, I'm not a little kid, I'm not married....I'm growing up! Coming to all of these realizations has really been a hard road. I am a big kid and I wear big kid pants now. I pay my own bills, all of them, I live on my own, in my own apartment (which is a huge mess right now), I cook for myself, I clean for myself, I choose what I do. Now I know a lot of you have been doing this for awhile and for that I say "great job!" Its harder than it seems. Its a freeing and extra scary thing when you sit back and realize what you are doing. Hmmm.... I am glad that I am responsible enough to take care of myself but scared to death that I will screw it all up. God help me!

I heard a comment that put all my loneliness issues into perspective. A good friend of mine has been through some stuff in her life and she passed her wisdom on to me...she said "I know from experience that sometimes the loneliest times you could have are in a marriage where the person you are with is in the room and you feel completely alone." I pray God will be with my dating choices. I am offically starting to get to a point that I never thought I would ever get to, I'm almost scared of committment and marriage. Dont get me wrong, I'm not in a dating relationship but I see so many relationships that have ended around me and I wonder? How do people get to that point, how do you know you KNOW someone? This is about the time I think arranged marriages are a good idea, then again I would have been married off like 10 years ago. My mom and dad live for grandkids. Committment is such a big deal to me and rightly so I just wonder....will I be like my mom and just "know" or will God have to smack me in the head to tell me "this is the one!"

This birthday is making me realize that I am getting older and honestly has made me all reflective. You'd think I was turning 30 or 40! Ha ha. I thank God for my close friends both in Lousville (rachel, phoebe, monica, chandler, ross, joey, oh and josh, sarah, stephen, max, melissa) and my amazing friends from LCC (to many to name), my family (mom,dad, abbs, aus, zan, Aunt susie, grams), my coworkers (betsy, cami, dawn, dana) and all the other blessings I have encountered. I am thankful for the ways God works in my life and I pray that 23 will bring amazing things!

Tacky Birthday...

So today for lunch we decided to have a tacky birthday party for a girl in my office. The rules were that you had to dress completely opposite of your regular style. I'll admit the trip to Goodwill may have been the best part! We laughed and laughed and laughed! Its fun to dress up and be someone who you are not. To think to yourself, who would actually wear this? What a blast! This is evidence that I wore a hot pink mom dress , pink earrings, and hott gold flats. I'm telling you we were all a sight to see. The funniest part was that a bunch of ladies asked us what the occasion was and we told her it was a birthday party, she replied with "oh, how fun, we thought you all were a religious group." She continued with "but my husband heard you all discussing football so we tought we would ask." I guess us church folk dont watch sports...

Yee-Haw Cowboy!

Its true....this weekend my family came to Louisville for the first time and since well this is Kentucky and my brother is the most hick down home child I have ever met we went to the PBR (professional bull riding) event in downtown Louisville. Now I have many many comments about this auspicious event, however I will admit I had a blast. My sister and I were cracking jokes and really hitting Austin hard with ridiculous comments, which came back to bite us later. We loved it! It was so fun, good music, hott cowboys, ballpark hotdogs, and the fear of someone could die from this is a scary combination for a good time. Looking around I saw 3,000 of my little brothers all equiped with camo, stetsons, big belt buckles, boots, and of course carharts. My brothers first reaction was "I told you I should have brought my boots to Louisville mom." Needless to say I loved it and look forward to my next PBR fiasco!